When Persians and Byzantines
Battled for the land
Where God walks,
A fool for man's love--

When Caliph Omar captured the holy rock
The rubble of God's seat
Where Muhammed ascended into heaven
And reclaim Ishmael’s place

When Caliph Hakim destroyed
Church and synagogue alike
And set in play the old blood-feud
Always waiting underneath—

When Godfrey de Boullion, in 1099
With Knights Templar, entered like a king
Son of Man, a second coming
Profanely claiming Jerusalem for the Christian God--

When Saladin reclaimed the city
When Richard Lionheart invaded
When Christians lost the Crusade
When they went home, hated—

And other empires take the city:
Seljuks, Malamuks, Ottomans, and British
All took it in their turn
All building it in their image—

When the so-called War to End All Wars
Was two years from its end,
And Allenby reclaimed
Jerusalem for de Boullion—

There was no stopping the tides
Of blood, staining the walls.

CANTO IV

Salem to Mechizedek
Rusalimum to the Pharoahs
Urusalim to the Canaanites
Aelia Capitolina to Rome

Jerusalem! City of Peace!
Home to Abraham's Sons
The naval of the world
I'm tired of this naval gazing.

Jerusalem is the snakeI shall not cease from Mental Strife
That swallows itselfNor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Never-ending, eternal,Till we have built Jerusalem
Full of entwined self-loathing.Till we have built Jerusalem